86 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Bingham & Hetheiington, asking tiiat 

 their smoker and honey knife should 

 not be entered for premiums or com- 

 petion. The request will be complied 

 with. 



Secretary House also read a com- 

 munication from James Nipe, of 

 Spring Prairie, Wis., making a com- 

 plaint that the American Bee Jouii- 

 NAL continually misquotes, and en- 

 deavors to weaken the lioney market. 



After some discussion, J\Ir. House 

 moved tliat the matter be laid on the 

 table, to be called up at the next an- 

 nual meeting, and that a committee 

 be appointed to investigate tlie mat- 

 ter and report next year. Mr. Dick- 

 inson wasa-iipointedasthatcommittee. 



L. E. St .John then read a paper by 

 Chas. Dadaut, on "dysentery, its 

 causes, effects and prevention." 



The next topic for discussion was 

 the " Disposal of Products." 



Under tliis head, there was a talk on 

 teuiperance and glucose. The ques- 

 tion of using extracted honey in the 

 manufacture of beer and wines was 

 also ably discussed, and the feasibility 

 and probability of such a use were 

 shown. It seemed to be tlie opinion 

 of the Convention that lioney should 

 be sold oidy to recognized, upriglit 

 dealers, and'the adulteration of honey 

 with glucose would not then take 

 place. Better prices would as a con- 

 sequence he realized. 



The Convention adjourned until 9 

 a.m. 



SECOND DAY. 



The Convention was called to order 

 at 9:15 a.m., by acting president, W. 

 E. Clark, of Oriskany. The reading 

 of the minutes followed, after which 

 several jiersons were admitted to 

 membership. 



The following committees were ap- 

 pointed : On implements, L. E. St. 

 John, N.N.Betsinger and VV. A. House ; 

 on question drawer, J. C. Scholleld, 

 S. M. Locke and A. J. King. 



The topic for discussion, "Experi- 

 ences with comb foundation," was 

 then taken up. The remarks of Mr. 

 Root seemed to open a very profitable 

 discussion. He claimed that the use 

 of comb foundation was necessary to 

 the tluu'ough bee-keeper. He ad- 

 mitted that much of the foundation 

 sold was adulterated, and the object 

 must be to get that which was the 

 most free from adulterating sub- 

 stances. 



Mr. Bacon agreed with the remarks 

 of Mr. Root, but did not think that 

 a lieavy foundation was advisable. 



Mr. Dickinson argued in favor of a 

 heavy foundation for the brood-cham- 

 ber, and a light foundation for sur- 

 plus boxes. 



Mr. Locke stated that a foundation 

 for the brood-chamber should measure 

 6 feet to the pound. 



In reply to a (juestion of Mr. Bet- 

 singer as to whether one could detect 

 the adulteration of wax with ceresin 

 or paraffine, Mr. Van Deuseii said 

 that unless theie was considerable 

 adulteration, liecouldnot. That gen- 

 tleman also stated that foundatioii 10 

 or 11 feet to the pound was advisable 

 for surplus boxes. He exhibited 

 specimens of foundation, partly drawn 

 out, on tlut-bottoms. 



Secretary House also exliibited 

 samples of pure foundation, wax 

 mixed with paraffine and ceresin. Tlie 

 discussion was further continued, and 

 the following resolution, offered by 

 Mr. Dickinson, was adopted : 



lie.iolved. That the .adulteration of 

 comb foundation in any manner is to 

 and is denounced by .this Ccmvention 

 as much as the use of glucose sliould 

 be. 



The Secretary read the following 

 essay by W. J. Davis, on 



The Best Method of Bearing Queens. 



I have not egotism enoiigli to sup- 

 pose that Lean instruct the members 

 of so r^itelligent a body of ai)iarists of 

 the old Empire State, in any dejiart- 

 meiit of our fascinating pursuit, espe- 

 cially the one assigned me (by your 

 affable Secretary) which lies at the 

 foundation of successful bee-culture, 

 and any effort so to do would be but 

 reflecting back a. glimmer of the light 

 received fmni thai ]iioneer of practi- 

 cal and scientific bee-culture, Mr. 

 Quinby, of your State. Your large 

 and prosperous Association is, to my 

 mind, an evidence of the entliusiasm 

 he labored to awaken in a long-neg- 

 lected industry. His pen enriched 

 the iniges of the agricultural press of 

 your State in ante bee jounial days, 

 and led many a groping novice from 

 darkness into light. May the names 

 of Langstroth and Quiiiby never be 

 forgotten while a. flower blooms and a 

 bee's wing cuts the summer air in 

 this fair land of ours. 



In the consideration of our suliject, 

 we shall go beyond the mere mechan- 

 ical part of queen rearing, for I ad- 

 dress a convention of bee masters, 

 not novices, ami first consider the ob- 

 ject to be attained. That the queen 

 liee is the " main si)ring " of the hive, 

 there will probably be none to (jues- 

 tion, and to in'oduce her ladyshiji in 

 that way that shall develop the high- 

 est excellence, such as vigor, beauty, 

 longevity, gentleness, etc., sliould be 

 the aim of every bee-keeper, wliether 

 he rear queens beyond the wants of 

 his own colonies or not. 



When we look into the laws that 

 govern the jirodiicfion of animal life, 

 we find that one law obtains, from 

 man down through all the grades of 

 lower animal life, viz: "The animal 

 after his kind." 



Wliile climate, food and surround- 

 ings have their influence, man is still 

 man, whether barbarous or enlight- 

 ened, and his domestic animals when 

 bred with .■my special peculiarity or 

 trait in view, have developed the 

 traits desired. While there are many 

 desirable traits in our present strain 

 of Italian bees that should be fostered 

 in breeding, I have named but four, 

 deeming that further enumeration 

 would make my essay undesirably long. 



The first trait, vigor, strength, power 

 of eiidui-ance. As bee-keepers, we do 

 not want all our hopes blasted by the 

 occurrence of unusually severe win- 

 ters, which are liable to occur in our 

 variable climate. That one colony of 

 bees lives, and another by its side dies 

 under precisely the same conditions, 

 is evidence of different powers of en- 

 durance. 



I have at different times exposed a. 

 number of laying queens, confined 

 without workers, in cages, to a low 

 temperature for bees singly, and 

 watched the result. All were supplied 

 with the same kind of food, some 

 would iiecome dormant in a short 

 time, while others would live several 

 days. 



I know no better term than to say 

 the latter possessed more vigor, or 

 power of endurance, and. as thequeen, 

 so would be bee worker progeny, easily 

 chilled in summer or winter, or pos- 

 sessing power to resist unfavorable 

 surroundings. 



2. Beauty. Men love the beautiful 

 wherever seen. " Beautiful women," 

 beautiful landscapes, beautiful homes, 

 beautiful flowers, beautiful honey and' 

 beautiful bees. Some men may ))ro- 

 fess a contempt for the beautiful, but 

 we don't believe their professions, and 

 if forced to take them at their word, 

 we sorrowfully admit them to be moral 

 monsters. But we hope there are none 

 such in our fraternity. The flimsy as- 

 sertion of some, that we sacrifice pro- 

 ductive industry asthe price of beauty 

 in our bees, is hot sustained by anal- 

 ogy, or un]n-ejudiced experience. To 

 possess the highest type of stock of 

 any kind, is a source of pleasure. To 

 have our customers say, " The queen 

 you sent me is the handsomest one I 

 ever saw," is certainly pleasant, tosiiy 

 the le-ist. 



3. Longevity. It is a fact that some 

 queens die after having laid eggs but 

 a few weeks, while others live and 

 in-osper 4 or 5 years. All life insurance 

 companies are particular to iiupiire as- 

 to the longevity of the parents of the 

 applicant for a iiolicy of insurance, 

 claiming to calculate the risk with 

 much certainty. I shall assume that 

 the same rule holds good in the breed- 

 ing of bees, and that a long-lived 

 queen will be more likely to produce 

 long-lived queens and workers than 

 one that lived to be only 1 year old. 

 It will readily be seen that if we can 

 add but one week to the average life 

 of the working force of the liive, we 

 have added largely to theprolitsof the 

 apiary. A week of added lite to the 

 worker bees would be a week of active 

 out-door labor. To rear bees that die 

 off quickly (comparatively) is a profit- 

 less pursuit. 



I deem it a very great mistake to 

 suppose tliat the queen tiiat can lay 

 the greatest amount of eggs in a given 

 time is therefore a desiralile queen. 

 If we assume that the queen bee is 

 capable of laying .500.000 eggs during 

 tier life, shall we have them laid in 2 

 years or 4 y In my early experience 

 with the Italians, I liad queens that 

 would keep 10 Langstroth frames and 

 all the sur|)lus capacity I could give 

 them full of brood, the'beesduring the 

 clover harvest working for dear life to- 

 feed the baby bees, which, in a short 

 time, were to be only useless con- 

 sumers. If there be any spot on earth 

 where the honey flow is abundant and 

 perpetual, my argument would not 

 apply, but that place is not Western 

 Pennsylvania. 



I found that such colonies, while 

 they yielded an undesirable increase, 

 never gave me any surplus honey, or 



